But Penn Jillette is, quite simply, the smartest guy in the room. It's ridiculous that he was sidelined in his first season — before Dayana Mendoza and Teresa Giudice, for heaven's sake — and dinged for being arrogant by Clay Aiken, but Penn seemed to return with a greater sense of purpose and his ego firmly in check. He was the go-to guy for creative concepts and always had the big picture in mind. He instinctively knew when and where to deploy celebrity, and his decision to essentially import all of Foxwoods' talent for the Foxwoods challenge was a simple but elegant solution.

Dee Snider summed it up best in the Universal Studios challenge, in which Snider opted for a lamer concept because, "You kind of feel intimidated by the magnitude of Penn's ideas." So he didn't act on it, and he was fiyahed. Lesson learned!

The finale airs tonight on NBC at 9 p.m. Donald Trump will make his decision live. Best of luck to both men.

Biggest triumph: Taking the high road with Gary Busey during the LG challenge, in which Gary refused to listen to cooler heads and pursued his ridiculous robotic dog idea. Penn gave him what he wanted: support. In the boardroom, he told Gary, "I didn't give you the feelings you wanted." Gary: "No, you didn't give me the feelings I asked for." Penn: "Exactly." He also was remarkably restrained in dealing with auteur Stephen Baldwin in the Australian Gold challenge and the Crystal Light challenge.

Lowest point: Not pushing hard enough in the Universal Studios challenge for illusion concept, which certainly would have stood a better chance against Team Power's concept.

TRACE ADKINS for American Red Cross, which aided his family when his house burned down last year.

Biggest triumph: Trumping the show's conventions in the very first episode, a meatball challenge, by telling his teammates he's doesn't give two honks about what they taste like; he's just going to sell them for as much as he can.

Lowest point: Although he was the man with the plan on the otherwise idea-challenged Team Power, he did seem to mentally clock out for several of the challenges late in the season.